ISIS brides and their men sent back to school : Can terrorists be weaned off extremism?

Convicted hate preacher Anjem Choudary is among extremists billed to attend Britain’s first compulsory deradicalisation course

Authorities in Britain believe that in order to change terrorists into law-abiding citizens, all you need to do is send them on a mentoring course where they can receive theological “advice.” This was why 51-year-old hate preacher solicitor Anjem Choudary was released from prison on 19th October to a probation hostel in north London. He is being monitored by police, probation and security services under public protection arrangements that are intended to prevent him from radicalising others. Attending the course was one of several conditions imposed on Choudary on his release. He was released halfway through his sentence for supporting Isis.



The course was designed to combat the heightened terrorism threat. This is considering that convicted extremists are being freed from prison at a rate of one a week and over 40 per cent of those found guilty of terrorism offences in the past decade will be eligible for release by the end of the year. Also, nearly 250 extremists have returned from abroad.

This means that Choudary's coursemates will include ISIS brides, returning fighters and other recently released terrorists.



Will it work? Well, time will tell. However, applying a mere intellectual solution to a purely spiritual problem may not be the right way forward. You may recall that de-NAZIfication was compulsory after WWII. Sadly, this did not stop the rise of new NAZIS.